What’s the point of creative self-care?
Getting creative is a low-lift and fun way to be always exploring, learning, connected, and open.
As teenagers, we’re told to stop being creative, stop playing, and ‘grow-up’. BUT the creative play is where the continuous growing happens! When we fall into routines and habits, we become a less motivated, inspired, and less able to think outside the box.
Creativity combats PERFECTIONISm, fear of failure, self-doubt, and internal disconnect.
Making art:
1: connects you deeply to your thoughts and feelings
2: develops empathy so you become better at supporting others
3: gives space to name and deal with feelings
4: means you’re always exploring and learning
5: supports good wellbeing
6: gives you chemical rewards that make you feel good
7: calms the mind when its busy
8: teaches you how to be mindful (less self-crticial)
9: helps you see and change limiting beliefs that block you
10: makes you brave and confident
11: makes you resilient and more able to bounce back
12: is radically self-accepting, loving and caring
13: makes you a more open hearted and minded person
Art enriches us all
Exploring art, chatting about art, and making art feels good because it stimulates the brain and triggers a reward reflex, sometimes slowing the heart rate and relaxing you, sometimes causing a release of endorphins and serotonin making you feel happy, and sometimes helping you slip into a flow state where you’re totally absorbed by what you’re doing and content.
Regularly making or experiencing art also makes you feel more connected to the shared experience of being human.
So art making is scientifically amazingly good for you !!
Creative Tea Breaks applies a life-time of personal creative practice and pedagogical experience, then sprinkles in research from NeuroArts, art therapy, mindfulness, meditation, and manifesting to create immersive spaces where you can connect deeply, grow, and enrich your life with creativity!!
After a session, I love to ask people, “How do you feel?” Here’s some common answers…
Relaxed, sleepy, chill, happy, less stressed, more connected, not thinking about anything, way better, energised, grateful, happy to meet new people, appreciative, more creative, grateful, excited, grounded, less anxious, fun
Humans are literally hard-wired to be creative.
It makes us feel good, and you can’t do it wrong, which means we can all benefit from making art, even those of us that don’t think we’re creative.
If you feel stressed or lost, make art, breathe deep, explore what’s going on internally. Do this regularly and stress will impact you less, you’ll become more resilient, and you’ll feel more able to deal with life lifing and to keep up.
Take rest; make art; it will change your life.
You don’t have to be an artist to make art.
We are all creative.
Make art, feel good, do good!
Wonderful research into the impacts of (making) art
64 Million Artists’ study:
“CIM is a clinical research project exploring the impact of online creative challenges and peer-support on individuals experiencing low mood and anxiety. Groups of 20 participants took part in online programmes throughout the months of September, October and November 2018… The results of this trial have been significant and positive… The UCL results show that on the Stress, Depression, Anxiety Scale, participants showed a “significant” decrease in symptoms between the beginning of the pilot and a three-month follow-up. On the Warwick-Edinburgh Wellbeing Scale, participants experienced a “clinically meaningful improvement in wellbeing.”
🔍 Read full report here.
Book: Your Brain on Art
“Using non-invasive tools, scientists are peering into the brain to learn how engagement with the arts rewires neural circuitry and creates new pathways through the process of neuroplasticity. As sensations of light, sound, smell, taste and touch enter the brain, they set off a complex cascade of neurobiological effects, sculpting and shaping neurological functions and structures. Interacting with the arts, as maker or beholder, sparks a dynamic interplay of neurotransmitters, triggering billions of changes that shape the way we feel, think and behave.”
🔍 Explore website to discover more.
